CONDITION OF ENGLISH OAK NATURAL REGENERATION UNDER A FOREST CANOPY IN THE LEFT-BANK FOREST STEPPE

Abstract

In 2010–2016 in 60 sample plots the peculiarities of forming, age and size structure of English oak natural regeneration under forest canopy was studied. It was found that undergrowth density was the highest in the fresh maple and lime oak stand (on average 3.4 thousand plants per ha), significantly increased with the age of the parent stand and decreased with the age of the renewal itself. In the age structure of English oak natural regeneration under a forest canopy, the current year plants predominated (46.1 %); the part of 2–3-year renewal was 29.8 %, the part of 4–8-year-old renewal was 22.7 %, the part of 9–15-year-old renewal was 1.4 %. As the relative density of parent stand stocking increased, the density of oak seedlings increased, the density of current year oaks increased but the density of 4–8-year-old renewal decreased as a result of insufficient illumination or competition with other plants. In the combined sample without age distribution of English oak natural renewal, the success of regeneration was good in 3,3 % of inspected plots, insufficient in 4.9 %, satisfactory in 8.2 %, unsatisfactory in 83,6 % of studied plots.